There is a Chinese saying that in heaven there is paradise, and on earth there are Suzhou and Hangzhou. The West Lake, on the western edge of Hangzhou, has inspired poets, painters and garden designers for more than a thousand years, and its blend of water, hills, causeways, pagodas and temples became a model for landscape gardens across China, Japan and Korea. UNESCO inscribed it as a cultural landscape in 2011. The Su causeway, built by the poet-governor Su Dongpo in the eleventh century, and the Bai causeway, named after the Tang poet Bai Juyi, cross the lake, lined with willows and peach trees.
Around the lake, the Leifeng pagoda, rebuilt in modern times, recalls the Legend of the White Snake, one of China's great folk tales, in which a snake spirit falls in love with a human; the Lingyin temple, one of the most important Buddhist temples in China, sits in the hills with its cliff carvings; and the tea plantations of Longjing, home to the famous Dragon Well green tea, cover the slopes to the south-west. The lake is particularly beautiful in the early morning mist, or in the evening when the lights come on.
Riding in Hangzhou is restricted: like many Chinese cities, it limits motorcycles in its central areas, and foreign riders need a Chinese driving licence. The roads around the lake are busy, with heavy traffic and many pedestrians and cyclists, and the best way to explore the lake itself is on foot or by bicycle. Outside the city, the hills of Zhejiang offer winding roads through tea plantations and bamboo forests, and the Qiantang river is known for its tidal bore, best seen in autumn.
Hangzhou is a vast city, and services are no problem, though parking a motorcycle anywhere near the lake can be. The food is famous in its own right: West Lake fish in a sweet vinegar sauce, Dongpo pork braised until it melts and named after the poet-governor, and shrimps stir-fried with Longjing tea leaves. Visit the tea villages in the hills to drink the tea where it grows, ideally in spring when the first leaves are picked, and take a boat to the islands in the lake to see it as the poets did.